Iran’s newly inaugurated President Hassan Rouhani with a recent decree reinstated Ali Akbar Salehi as vice president and head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI).

The decree highlights Salehi’s role in concluding the nuclear deal between Iran and the West in 2015.

Indeed, Salehi was one of the main figures in the historic agreement aimed to settle the long-standing dispute over Iran's nuclear program. The agreement, aka the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), should ultimately remove from Iran the economic and financial sanctions imposed earlier by the UN Security Council, U.S. and the European Union.

Over several years, Ali Akbar Salehi was the man who could negotiate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and find acceptable compromises for the continuation of negotiations. In 2013, Salehi and IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano reached a historic agreement on inspection of the Arak reactor by IAEA experts.

At the same time, Iran also committed itself to provide information on all research reactors, 16 projects for the construction of new nuclear power plants, plants that enrich uranium and new uranium enrichment technologies used by Iran.

These steps taken by Salehi’s team have positively influenced the prospects for Iran’s nuclear deal with the West.

The fact that Salehi remains the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran can serve as a proof of Iran’s intention to continue fulfilling the terms of the nuclear deal with the West and to further work with the IAEA.